Front Lines
by Amongthegreats
Summary: It's not easy being a soldier, but sometimes it comes with good things too ... Soul Eater AU because jowts' art blog on tumblr was giving me military SoMa feels.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm back bitches. New story. Same author. I hope you enjoy! (Despite the fact that I don't own Soul Eater and my iPad caused a lot of typos. My bad!) Washington is great. Not that it matters to the story at all but still...**

* * *

There was only one word to describe the second of August in the young soldier's mind: dirt.  
The wind carried it through the air, and the desert breathed it in with every sway of the oh so far off clouds. This sight was fimilar to the soldier, but one never really becomes quite comfortable to the work of lungs no matter how many tours.  
First Lieutenant Maka Albarn couldn't figure out how the drivers of the convoys were able to keep on the road. Especially given the fact that it was a dirt road. She felt bad for the lower ranking personell stuck with the older convoys, and tried not to think about her earlier days in the rugide army vechiles. Maka could still remember all the bumps and ditches they had to avoid running into on her first mission, all of which nearly caused the less defined convoys to tip.  
Not that it would be the worst of her problems, or the most searing of her memories.  
Instead of focusing on the dirt bowling around their vechiles or on every bump the convoy made, Maka checked and restocked her gun and surrounding weapons. After she checked her barrell for the fifth time, Maka threw her head behind her shoulder to make sure no one in the back seat was dozing off. Even if it was highly likely with the given situation, she knew that Second Lieutentant Black*Star had the ability to doze off in almost any atmosphere if he chose to. He also had the ability to swallow a whole sandwhich down with one glass of water, and to possibly be the most annoying sleath fighter she ever met. For the best of his luck though, he was awake and playing cards with the other occupant of the back seat.  
A note about the second Lieutentant: He never liked to lose.  
The boy had been playing cards ever since he was first assigned to be on Maka's company. She needed more personnel, so she accepted the ones not afraid to wield the biggest guns. For most it would be seen as a choice concerning greed, however for Maka it was a choice surrounding logic like most things she valued.  
Most second lieutentants might have been running their own platoon then, but instead of being stuck with such a small crowd and stage like he had been for the last few years, Black*Star decided to advance in a new style. A company was a much bigger audience for a star, and if he got the job done then Maka didn't mind it.  
Except for when she did mind it.  
Maybe the only thing keeping him on her team was the fact that he was excellent with attack weaponry and warfare. Maybe it was because he grew up in the same city as her, and he faced many of the same challenges as her before. Maybe it was because they both had messed up family issues and they both were tired of being screwed over endlessly. Maybe it was the knowledge that deep down he was just as stressed and caffeine driven as the rest of them. Or maybe it was because despite his big ego and his loud words, the boy was a protector above all and the responsibility he took on was to keep others safe.  
It could have been all of those things, but only the person who was playing the cards right knew.  
The other person in the backseat, Jackie, lost in an almost knock out. The young woman wasn't nearly as high ranking as Black*Star or Maka, but she had earned her spot with their company nether the less. She had also earned her spot in the convoy.  
Never bet against Jackie on a Monday. Those days were her best.  
"We should be arriving at the compound soon," the young man next to Maka informed the convoy.  
He gripped the wheel with both hands, and under all his gear he was sweating despite the whip of air conditioning coming from his dash. The convoy was crowded with just the four people, their weapon, and their gear. It was better to be snug inside something less likely to tip than to be loose in an big metal box when it fell sideways though. The young man did not feel the need to openly complain.  
Colonel Death the Kid didn't enjoy tours, no one did, but being a field officer and offering to over see Maka's success with her company called for a few.  
Maka was thankful that he was open to supervise her progress. She knew Kid as a family friend, seeing how close operations between their fathers were. Even though he occasionally got on her nerves too, it was better than the alternative.  
Pop quiz. What do you get with a General who cheats on his games, and a daughter who catches him after enlisting? A family feud between two army officers.  
Anything but Maka's annoying father was fine. Actually it was better than fine, it was perfect. She could survive the final month of her tour with Kid, Jackie, and even Black*Star. A final month of her tour ending with an eighteen hour convoy ride with General Spirit Albarn though was crossing the line. Big time. If General Death, Kid's father, even so much as suggested the idea Maka would have given him quite the piece of her mind.  
For a woman her size, she sure had a lot of words to fill out.  
"Are the other convoys aware," Maka asked.  
Kid nodded, "Yes ma'am First Lieutenat Albarn."  
Maka turned back to face her other company members. Black*Star hooted as he beat out Jackie, and the young woman with the dark groaned while he gathered up the cards.  
"Did you two even hear the Colonel?"  
Black*Star waved his hand dismissively, his fingers weaving through the new deck of cards steadily.  
"Yeah, yeah, we heard Mr. Stripes over there."  
The colonel had been domed with the curse of three stripes bleached into his black bangs after taking a nap in a barrack dorm with Black*Star and a few more soldiers. Considering his OCD, no one besides a medical officer named Liz Thompson went by the colonel or his station for a long time. Sometimes it was even too much for Liz.  
Having heard the young soldier's ignorant comment, Kid raised an eyebrow in the rear view mirror at the second Lieutentant.  
"Excuse me blue haired monkey, what did you say?"  
Maka sighed into her walks talkie as the two men started to snicker at each other. She pulled it p to her lips as the static from the other line shot through it.  
"First Lieutentant Albarn, do you read me?"  
"First Lieutentant Albarn, speaking."  
"This is Second Lieutentant Evans, convoy number two twenty. We have spotted gun fire up ahead forty-five degrees north from the compound," The voice read out.  
From the corner of her eye, she caught the Colonel's glare but it wasn't directed at Black*Star or any other occupant of the convoy. Instead it was straight ahead, waving around the dust by the compound they were approaching. Little black beads propelled around the building's fences, sweating through the dirt fog.  
"Damn it," the Colonel grunted as he swerved inside the compound gate.  
"Copy that. Prepare weapons, and assemble defensive positions. Over," the blonde hair shoulder turned to the blue haired one behind her, "Lieutentant Black*Star, prepare a diversion."  
"On it," he assured before sliding out of the convoy.  
Gun fire rung through the open door, almost deafening the crew inside. It was the noise of the blood that caused Maka's voice to catch in her throat.  
"Jackie," she hesitated.  
"Yes ma'am?"  
Maka sat in her seat, her eyes dead on her lap. It's always a terrible misfortune to repeat what once was.  
"Gun, now."  
The dark haired solider nodded before sliding out of her seat and opening the roof's hatch.  
"I'll help her on the defensive positions," the Colonel offered, his eyes never reaching contact with Maka's.  
Instead they bore through the windshield like steel, cutting through the bullets and soldiers as they flew about.  
"I'll lead an attack unit then."  
The colonel nodded, slowing the convoy down as blasts of hot metal knicked the vechile. Maka picked up her gun before clasping the walkie talkie at her shoulder.  
"Second Lieutentant Evans, do you read me?"  
"Second Lieutentant Evans, speaking."  
"I need you to take your men and follow me. We're going to lead an attack. Enemy fire is coming from a hill forty-five degrees north of the compound, the same place where you spotted the original outbreak of gun fire. We need to reach the enemy territory and stop anymore damage from happening while Colonel Death the Kid leads the offensive, over?"  
Outside the left window, one of the gasoline tanks bursted as searing hot metal lodged into its shell. A man flew onto the convoy's windshield, causing the Colonel to slam on the brakes. The vechile lurched forward, and outside from the roof Jackie yelped.  
"Hey, watch it! I almost just tasted my gun because of that!"  
The wounded man slid off the hood, and a group of medical personnel rushed over with a makeshift stretcher, trying to keep the dirt from rising past their knees and into their lungs. Maka noticed a particular woman with her helmet clinging onto her chin just barely by the strap. Her bun was a mess, and strands of her long blonde hair was starting to spill out onto her shoulders. She addressed orders to the men and women around her, some having to put multiple people on stretchers because of the lack of equipment and time.  
Her eyes scanned the convoys and their windows, blue trying to tear through the light brown.  
"Liz," the Colonel shouted as he rolled down his window and waved one hand to her, "Liz!"  
Her head perked up from the dirt clouds gathering around other convoys, and her eyes met Kid's. She waved back holding a palm sized capped bottle in her mouth, before she crouched down and started to clean a soldier's gash where a bullet hit them.  
"Let me out Colonel," Maka said as she gripped the door handle.  
Kid turned his attention from Liz to Maka and unlocked her door for her.  
"Maka."  
It wasn't a request or question, it was an order.  
"Yes sir?"  
Kid studied her supplies and equipment before meeting her face. It was the look a brother gave his sister before she went off to college, the look of remorse and sadness. There was hope, but it was well hidden in the nook of his other emotions.  
"Don't die. I don't want to be at your funeral."  
Maka felt like hugging him, but she instead held her hand out since the alternative was much easier psychically with her gear on and emotional with the war on.  
"We'll don't you die either. I know papa will be upset if you do," she offered.  
He took her hand and shook it.  
"Thanks Maka, means a lot."  
She opened the door and slid out of the vechile.  
"That's Lieutentant Albarn to you," she responded before shutting the door.  
The Colonel merely shook his head and drove off, with Jackie still on the roof shouting curses to him everytime he had to stop because of flying bullets or soldiers.  
"Lieutentant," called a man behind Maka.  
She turned to acknowledge the voice, and was greeted by the sight of a young man running up to her gun in hand. Even after he stood directly in front of her, she still has a hard time making out the young man's features.  
"First Lieutentant Albarn," he grunted as he shifted his gear.  
Maka raised her eyebrow at him, her face painted with confusion.  
"Yes sir, what do you need?"  
He pointed to his dog tag, this time taking his turn to raise his eyebrows.  
"Second Lieutentant Evans," he responded.  
Oh. Oh.  
Maka nodded, her attention turning from his red eyes, white hair, yet oddly enough tan skin, to the task at hand.  
"Right, where's the rest of your convoy?"  
The second Lieutentant pointed his thumb to his chest.  
"Right here."  
Maka nearly dropped her gun, and she for sure dropped her jaw.  
"Are you kidding me?"  
The white haired soldier shook his head, and Maka nearly yelled all the curses a human could think of at him. Instead she went with just one.  
"Well fuck."  
She turned how her heel, and crouched down along the compound's wall not waiting for Evans' reaction.  
"What's the plan," he asked crouching along the wall too to avoid the bullets whisking past them.  
"I need to get out of this jacket," Maka muttered.  
"Are you crazy? We're under fire and you're worried about your damn jacket?"  
She took a second to glare at him over her shoulder.  
"Yes, and if you'd shut the hell up and listen to the plan you'd know why."  
Evans growled, "Well then hurry up and tell me the damn plan!"  
Maka glared at him again, her green eyes lighting up like Greek fire. Then she did something she had never done to a fellow officer.  
She flipped him off.  
"What the hell was that for?"  
Maka scoffed as she unzipped the front of her gear pack off and strapped it to her thigh instead.  
"Oh, we're under enemy fire and you're worried about being flipped off?"  
She raised her eyes from her jacket's zipper to meet his, which almost paralleled the fire in hers.  
"The plan," he asked through gritted teeth.  
Maka threw her jacket off leaving her rifle and a few other devices strapped to her thigh, and she wielded her pistol in hand. She was left exposed at her torso with just a black shirt reading the number forty-two on the left side of her chest.  
"Ok, I now have the smaller shiloute, so I'm going to climb up the hill, and after I interfer with the enemy fire, you come up and shoot down whatever's left. Got it?"  
"That's it?"  
"Well I was expecting a bigger team, so the first plan got thrown out."  
Evans groaned as he readied his gun.  
"Let's just go save the fucking compound and get over with all this shit," he muttered.  
"That's the spirit," Maka said cheerily, careful of catching dirt in her throat.  
Imagine fourteen enemy snipers firing down on your compound, being sent to shoot them all down, but it's only you and one other person. Three guns. Two rifles. One pistol. How close do you think they would get to catching you?  
When Maka and Evans reached the hill, Maka separated from the soldier and ducked into the cover of the dirt clouds. A smaller sillotette made it easier to fit in the smaller clouds. However it did little to make it be less easy to be shot at.  
Even though they couldn't see her or aim for her, they could see others making the defensive positions at the base of the hill. These enemy snipers kind of sucked at hitting targets from afar, but Maka still worried because they wouldn't be shooting her from afar. They would be shooting her closely. Very closely.  
"Evans better not get himself killed," Maka muttered to herself.  
It was hard for her to tell where the hill curved over, but she was soon able to see as the dust crept away from, revealing her like a curtain on a stage. To her left was a platform of the enemy snipers, all of which continued to fire down on her comrades.  
They didn't notice her though, and that's what mattered.  
Maka crept along to the base of the platform, behind the first sniper's back. She checked her bullets. There would be enough if she could play her cards right. Hopefully she would have the chance to.  
Deep breath in, deep breath out. Repeat. Finger on the trigger. Wait for the right moment. Deep breath in. Aim. Deep breath out.  
Release.  
A crack out thunder errupted from her hand, and Maka didn't even let the shock of shooting someone set in long enough for before aiming for the head of the next sniper.  
One down. Two. Three. Four. Fix. Six. Seven. Seven down.  
To her left she saw a sniper turn his gun her direction. Maka gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.  
Eight. Nine. Ten.  
Ten down, four left.  
She hated it. The rush of the trigger. She hated how the animal side of her woke up with each bullet. Maka wasn't a sniper, she never wanted to be one, but just because you don't wield a fancy gun in the shadows didn't mean you didn't shoot people. She had shot too many people to count.  
Eleven, twelve, thirteen. Thirteen down. One left. That's all, one left and then she could unite with Evans and help scout out the enemy's territory for raiding. One left. One left.  
The sniper pulled the trigger before Maka could even blink.  
"Albarn," a voice yelled.  
Then it was snowing. Snowing, in the desert? During a fight? No, wait it wasn't snow. It blocked her view, but unless there was a blizzard stuck to her face...  
It wasn't snow.  
"Evans," she screamed as the bullet ripped through him.  
Then another one, another, another, last bullet. Five bullets lining down his chest. Five too many bullets that should be in any human being. The sniper looked up from the falling body, and though she couldn't see his whole face, she could see his mouth twitch up into a smirk. How the hell could he smirk? After what he just did?  
"Go to hell," Maka muttered as a bullet slammed itself into her sternum.  
The last thing she saw was her final bullet slamming through the sniper's skull, and a trail of blood leaking through the damage.  
Then everything was just black.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Even though I'm working on my iPad and Apple's spell check is a bitch, I got it done. Enjoy chapter two! (Um I don't own Soul Eater. If I did, I'd buy myself an actual computer with real spell check to write this yo.) **

* * *

The sky above her was white, stained with red, and wrought out in black for good measure.

Of course to Maka the world was a spectrum of these three colors, and even though you may say white is not a color, on that day Maka Albarn could assure you it was.

Oh how it was.

When she finally saw real shapes instead of blurs and heard actual noise instead of fuzz for sound, it was only after death nearly caught her. And by nearly I mean almost completely. After three emergency operations on her sternum, over two ounces of given blood, and fifty-three hours in intensive care, Maka was finally allowed to handle her own food, sit upright, and a day later she was given the privilege to walk a few feet around. Of course, even that was closely monitored.

After all, everyone was curious to see if the dead would really be able to walk.

Even though the two of them had been feuding, Maka was slightly touched to see her father visit her makeshift hospital room with the lead medical officer and his best friend, Dr. Stein, by his side. Her father looked like he was nearly about to cry, but Maka believed Stein's monotone filled composure kept him in check.

**You couldn't blame him: the doctor had been through hell and back, and he sure had the stitches to prove it.**

When the near weeping man and his fellow officer left, Maka slunk back into her pillows, letting sleep and medience wash over her. Occasionally visitors like Black*Star and Jackie showed up to make sure Maka still kept her annoyance hinged on them, but to also wish their commanding officer well. They even promised not to resign from her company, but to rather transfer to Kid's team until further notice of her health. Despite her damaged pride and confusion over the given circumstances, Maka was allowed herself crumbs to feed the knowledge that at least she saved them. It was the largest of any meals given that her stomach would digest for the next month.

Everything else came back up.

To settle her aching stomach pains, and to still keep her on a health diet, they had to hook nutrients up into her wrist. The first time it was decided that she'd would need the IV like food chord, Maka almost threw the idea away all together. She almost wanted to have her stomach scum to starvation rather than go through _this_.

Liz had come in with a smile on her face, and the smell of coffee braiding her words. There were bags under her eyes from taking care of so many wounded personnel, but there was no need for explanation. Maka already knew why Liz was so pale. She doubted the twenty-six year old got much more sleep than her. Behind Liz trailed a girl with pink hair, and Maka's mind sputtered at the thought of how she might have possibly gotten away with that. It was fairly short after all, just below the ears meeting regulation length, but the color.

It was just so ... _Pink_.

The girl's face had much more color than her fellow staff member, and her smile was more full. Compared to Liz's, it was like a Thanksgiving dinner at a mansion in Texas. Big, bigger, biggest. She beamed at the wounded soldier, not saying a word as she get gently took Maka's wrist in her soft palm.

Then a prick.

"Oh no, no, no, Kim! You messed up, you're supposed to make contact with Maka's vein. Relocate the needle a bit," Liz advised, tripping over her yawns as she checked Maka's supply of pain medication.

Why the hell do they make her work when she's as tired as shit, Maka silently complained on her friend's behalf.

Another prick, this time drawing blood. Not Maka's blood.

**It was too pure.**

"Kim!"

Maka looked up from her lap where she had her right hand fisting the blanket through Kim's needle abuse to her wrist, the sight of the actual abuse. The evidence. However, the evidence was tempered. Maka's needle wasn't connected to her wrist at all. None of Maka touched it. Instead Kim stood there, cradling her finger as the bloody needle laid by Maka's side.

Liz rushed over to the pink hair medical staff member, and studied the wreckage of a not even chipped ship.

"Kim, go to the medical staff wash room. Go. Now," Liz ordered.

Kim nodded, her eyes searching Liz's as if hoping to find a tether and pull it to her tight, but finding none she instead turned to Maka.

"I'm so sorry Lieutenant Albarn. I'm ... I'm so sorry."

"Kim," Liz advised, "Now."

Kim nodded before scurrying out of Maka's room. Liz sighed, took the needle, and disposed of it in the sterile trash bag. She checked Maka's vitals before taking one of her own needles and taking Maka's wrist.

"I'm going to need to draw some blood and run some tests before we try the food tube again. I'm sorry Lieutenant," Liz explained as she brushed her left eye with her elbow.

Maka nodded, allowing Liz to take her wrist and hoping she would get it right at least, even if it was just because of their friendship.

"It's not your fault," Maka offered, but Liz simply shook her head.

"She's only enlisted, not a medical officer like me. Obviously she is still learning the ropes," Liz bent down so she was eye level with Maka as she slid the needle out of her skin, dabbing the small red dot that followed, "Between you and me, I kind of wish she'd learn them sooner."

Maka let out the best laughter she could, though it was just a pitiful wheeze after having her chest torn open twice, and Liz smiled chuckling herself.

"It's not that funny Liz," Maka groaned in between her cough fits.

Liz shook her head in agreement with the Lieutenant, but she still clicked her tongue with a slight chuckle.

"I know, I know," Liz checked Maka's vitals a final time before turning to the exit, "Just get some rest. Ok Lieutenant?"

Maka slept for three hours that night before thrashing herself awake.

* * *

The next unpleasant thing to happen followed after she was released from the medical unit's care. It was folded and tattooed with a black seal, and dressed up in an off white coating of paper.

A single letter informing her of her own departure home.

"What's this for," Maka cringed as she read the letter through the third time.  
She knew exactly what it was. She didn't want to admit and acknowledge it.  
"It's a formal release from your command out here on the front lines," Kid answered though he knew her questions were rhetorical.

Maka raised her eyebrows as her green eyes filtered through the black ink once more.

"Why?"

"Why First Lieutenant Albarn?"

She nodded, crinkling the letter a bit as she shoved it in her gear pack's pocket.

"Why are you sending me back so early?"

Kid fiddled with the ring on his right hand for a moment, making sure it was even with the ring on his left hand. The silver cut through the tense silence like a knife, but that still left a spot for them to see each other through it. Kid bent around the missing part.

"Because you got shot and had two surgeries. Besides, you are technically leaving on time. All the able soldiers are staying longer only because of the attack."

Maka crossed her arms, the toe of her boot leaving an impression in the sand beneath her.

"So you want me to run home with my tail in between my legs just because I got injured?"

The Colonel sighed as he rubbed his scowl lines across his forehead.

"Lieutenant Albarn, you know protocol better than anyone. It's one of the many reasons you and a few others were chosen to advance so high at such a young age. You should have at least seen something like this coming. Your stitches need time to heal, you need to under go psychical therapy, and you need to get a lot of rest. If you try to do any of these out here for a month as we carry out the last of our missions and such, you'll injury yourself more and be not just a harm to yourself but to your company. I know you don't want that."

She looked down at her boot laces, her mind wandering around with the idea of going home. Maka didn't like it. She'd always been the top of her class, she graduated with flying colors, and she knew many facts about strategy and battles, yet the only real time she could ever interact with people was in the military. No one else had seemed to enjoy her topics of discussion until they were in the same position as her. All of her family had been in the military, her mother and her father. She had no siblings to turn to for comfort.

The Lieutenant was about to become an alien in her own homeland.

"Lieutenants Star and Dupré will be joining with my team until we depart on the twenty-sixth, a whole month from now. Then they will join back with your company command at Fort Detrick, where you are going to be stationed from here on out. Understood," Kid informed the stunned soldier.

Lieutenant Albarn nodded, her face not showing any emotion. The young woman wouldn't allow it. She raised her hand to her forehead crisply, a salute hanging off of it. Kid raised his hand in return, lowing it to his side shortly after. His was stiff.

"You have today to gather your belongings. Your flight heads out at o'six hundred tomorrow morning. Don't miss it."

"Yes sir," She answered.

The Colonel and her stood there for a few moments, the absence of the young lieutenant already stepping in.

So Maka stepped out.

* * *

Surprisingly, it was cold.

Before her first tour the young dirty blonde lieutenant never assumed that it snowed in the desert. Now she knew better. At elevations like that, even in August you were bound to get some snow.

Sure enough, crews started clearing paths around the compound for convoys and tanks to maneuver around by the time it was breakfast. Maka could never quite grasp how suddenly brown heat could be persuaded into cold icy slush.

As she stepped outside she tightened her fleece cap once more, pulling it over her ears. The wind condemned her action by pushing her along into snow banks as her boots slipped along the settling ice to the runway. Relief flooded through her aching nerves as she saw the runways had been cleared, and the ice scrapped off the waiting cargo jet. She hated flying in those, that much was true, but in comparison it was much better than a stuffed convoy under gun fire.

The Lieutenant grasped her pack, flinging it over her shoulders and holding clutched the stair's rails. Covered in her glove, her hand slipped and glided over the wet steel. She stumbled into the plane's cargo bed, where soldiers sporting similar bandages as the one that donned her chest hurried as well as they could around the bed. Some needed extra assistance trying to place their gear bags in the right places and make it to their seats without tripping over the floorboards and cables that cluttered the ground.

She handed her pack to one of the helping soldiers, spotting the enlisted pink hair soldier that pricked her finger with Maka's needle. Maka groaned and made sure to try to avoid her, sliding down with her personal pack next to a young woman.

The woman looked about Maka's age, maybe older by a year or so, and she smiled at her lap trying not to let the bags under her heavy blue eyes be her anchor.

Her jacket read _Nakatsusaka_ on one patch, _US Air Force_ on another.

"That's a hell of a name," Maka stated, offering a smile to the young woman.

The young woman looked up with a small hum, making contact with Maka's eyes.

They both looked like hell.

"Yeah, they barely fit it on the plate for the residences in the barracks. At least that's what I was told - I haven't seen it yet," She acknowledged with a small laugh.

Maka nodded, and pulled the green glove off her hand before extending it to the woman next to her.

"First Lieutenant Maka Albarn, United States Army," Maka announced.

The woman next to her took off her glove as well, and took Maka's hand.

"First Lieutenant Tsubaki Nakatsusaka, United States Air Force."

"Air Force huh? What are you doing out here," Maka asked.

Tsubaki shrugged slipping her glove back on to protect her numb fingers.

"I work in maintenance and repairs, so they send me out wherever they need maintenance on convoys or jets. Kind of a drifting gig."

Maka nodded, breathing a small oh.

"Do you mind if I ask you why you're being sent home Lieutenant Albarn?"  
Maka looked up, meeting Tsubaki's eyes agian. They were curious but also concerned.

"I was shot, in my chest. It almost cracked my sternum, but the bone's just bruised. I recovered fairly quickly so they sent me out on this ride home."  
Tsubaki nodded, her dark hair bobbing up and down.

"I got shrapnel caught in my side, so they cut it out and stitched me up. When we get back I have to have the stitches in for two more weeks, and then psychical therapy," She said, answering Maka's unspoken questions.

The young lieutenants sat in silence after their confessions, toying with the strings hanging off their gloves or what not. When the cargo plane's doors closed, the cold air was shut out against it and the memory of such chills sent Maka shivers down her spine. The two young woman pulled at the loose belts, tugging them around their cameo uniforms trying to ignore the tightness or the stiff wood beneath them.

"Only a day," Maka whispered to herself, "It's only a day."

In front of the group, appeared a woman with a steel hard gaze. Her eyes drifted offering sympathy rather than pity, but the scars around her eyes proven it was for her own personal reasons.

"Hello, soldiers. As most of you may know, I am the medical felid general, General Yumi. I have overseen that you all who have been injured return home to your proper care so that if you are authorized back, we can be prepared together on the battle felid safely and efficiently. Our destination is Fort Detrick, Maryland. I assume most of you, if not all, are stationed at commands there. That being the case I wish you all the best and may we have a safe flight home," She stopped her gaze tearing through the rows of soldiers along the hard wooden walls until finally she dropped her chest, her words releasing into a heavy, "Dismissed."

* * *

When they were released out onto land, the sky was still changing, trying to seek privacy from the invasive eyes of the departing soldiers.

Maka's heart clenched as she watched children be sat upon their wheel haired parent's laps, or a toddler wobbling over to their approaching parent's leg. The most touching of the broken dawn's moments would had to have been when a woman carrying her infant child embraced her husband for probably what was the first time in months. Lieutenant Albarn figured the woman must have been pregnant when he left and then given birth while he was away. It wasn't unlikely for that to happen.

The same fate was given to Maka and her own mother when the general left on his first tour.

A little boy raced to one woman, but unlike these embracing families with hugging siblings and children, Maka stood alone. She held onto her gear bag, carrying it over her shoulder and trying not to let going so long off of her medication get the best of her.

It wasn't working.

She stumbled a bit, her bag brushing Tsubaki's duffle as a wave of dizziness greeted her. The dark haired soldier frowned a bit as she watched the lieutenant stumble once more before she grasped the dirty blonde's elbow.

"Easy soldier," Tsubaki encouraged, trying not to laugh at Maka's annoyed eye roll.

Maka leaned against the Air Force lieutenant, her eyes studying the crowd ahead.

"Do you have any family waiting for you," Maka asked.

She wasn't even half way done with her question before Tsubaki shook her head.

"Nope. My parents are in Japan. I'm the only member of my family who is a legal citizen of the United States," Tsubaki responded.

"So no siblings?"

Tsubaki bit her lip, hesitating to shake her head.

"Um, no. Not anymore."

Maka didn't push it.

They stood there in the mist of the crowd, their thoughts swamped like the hanger they stood in. People moved about them, children and grown ups cried, many talked, but the two young women were simply frozen in their spots. The two lieutenants were stuck in their own snow globe, watching the life drizzle outside.

Finally, when a warm summer wind carried through the hanger and they could see their feet again without tripping into a person, the two stood straight. Tsubaki wrapped her arm around Maka's waist, her bag slightly burying itself into Maka's back, but she didn't mind. At least she wouldn't fall, and that was all she cared about.

"Come on, I'll show you the way to the officer's barracks," Tsubaki offered as she tested setting one foot ahead of herself to see if Maka would follow suit.  
Maka's boot propped up from its limp spot, and instead appeared next to Tsubaki's.

"Thanks Tsubaki, I appreciate it," Maka's code to socializing.

Tsubaki smiled. She helped Maka to the barracks with a silent agreement between the two - they'd put up with each other for the time being. It was the closest thing to friendship either had up until that point.

**The best way to make friends: establish early on you're both pretty fucked up.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Look who updated finally? I did. Woot woot! I'll stop that now... hope you enjoy this! :D**

* * *

Yellow paint peeled off the exterior walls, causing the girls to share looks against the building.

However, there were three things the two girls had learned about exteriors:

**1.) Never judge solely based on the exterior of anything.**

**2.) The best interiors had the worst exteriors. **

**3.) Sometimes it was the interior that was the hardest to break.**

And they were rewarded for this knowledge.

The interior was nicely, decorated, the paint clean and not peeling off the walls, and there was central air and heating. Much better.

Tsubaki checked the name plaques and her sources had been correct. Her last name was no where close to fitting on there. She laughed a bit at that as Maka checked for her name. Funny how it turned out that Maka's quarters where just down the hall from Tsubaki.

"If you ever need anything I'll be the door with half my last name cut off," She laughed.

Maka nodded before heading to her own quarters, which where barren except for some furniture pieces that she'd probably end up trading out anyways. The young lieutenant didn't have much in the first place besides the clothes and items in her bag.

"Well might as well start getting used to it here," She mumbled to herself, before heading into her room to set down her bag.

* * *

The exchange was being raided out by frantic military parents and their kids, trying to grab the cheapest back to school item in their sights.

It was probably the most disastrous rainbow the young woman had seen.

The floor was littered from spilt crayons, and the more they got stepped on, the more they melded into the carpet. She spotted a teenager wearing the employee vest cringe each time a new crayon dropped. It'd probably take hours to clean up that mess.

**People often mistake colors for being good, but that's not always the case you see. **

Maka shuffled her and her cart past the swarm, glad that her days at school have long drawn to a close, but also feeling a slight nuisance brush her thoughts. She shook it off, focusing at the task at hand.

Her medical supervisors had recommended rest for her, and even sent her pain killers, but the lieutenant hadn't had real food in months, and the last thing she wanted to do was eat dry ramen noodles because she had nothing to cook them in.

She didn't even want cooked ramen noodles, she wanted food damn it.

Trying to avoid a family huddling into the back to school sale, the girl sharply turned her cart to the left, wincing in both acknowledgment of the pain sprouting from her chest and the fact that she knocked over a cardboard stand holding books for sale.

"Aw shit," She muttered, sending a small glare to the family as they bustled past her, not even caring about what just happened.

Real helpful.

The lieutenant pushed her cart over to the other side of the aisle she found herself in, and bent down to pick up the fallen books. She tried not to move to the point of affecting her chest, but even through the pain killers she could still feel pain sprout from her wound a bit.

**Life however has odd moments of faith (and karma) which end up screwing everything over a little. **

As she reached for yet another book, a hand brushed alongside hers and snatched it. She looked up to see a smirk man who ... No, it couldn't be.

But yes, it very much was.

"Did you knock this over, or are you just hungry for some good romance shit," Asked the man with the shit eating grin that Maka could've sworn was dead by now.

She stammered out of her shocked and confused Evans centric thoughts to glance down at the books she cradled in her arms. On the covers where women and men passionately kissing or half naked with cheesy titles like "Founded Love" or "Marco Beach of Passion". She nearly dropped the books.

"No, I don't read BDSM," Maka muttered as Evans stood the cardboard cut out up and helped her place the cheesy novels on it.

"Right," He chuckled, almost full out laughing at her reddening face.

"What do you want, Evans?"

He winced a bit at the tone of her voice. Especially how his name played off her lips.

The boy didn't exactly like it in the first place to be completely true, but more on that subject later. You have to wait to spoil good things, or else it's just plain rude after all.

"Can't I just run into the woman who saved my life without wanting something?"

The blood rushed down from Maka's face, her eyes lowering from his to the handle of her cart as she gripped it and pushed the squeaking blue wheeled beast forward.

"Yeah, I guess you can," She muttered in response.

Soul followed along behind her, hands shoved into his pockets, eyebrows raised in question.

"What's with the pout," He asked.

"I'm not pouting."

"And now you're defensive."

"Look," She whipped around to be eye level with him, but ended up standing on her tip toes due to height difference, "If you wanted to say thank you or whatever, you're welcome. Even though I should probably be the one saying thank you to you-"

"Then you're welcome."

She glared at him for interrupting, before he raised his hands up in surrender and let her continue.

"My point is we don't need to follow each other around bugging one another ok. So you go do you're own thing, I'll do mines."

He smirked, "Nice to know that we established that. Considering we're partners now and all."

He couldn't help but full out laugh after seeing how wide her eyes had gotten at that.

"Partners?"

* * *

She had been angry for the first week, but now her pissed off meter was being tested more than anything else.

It was all Evans' fault anyways.

She had been staying over at his place more and more often, considering hers just felt empty and his felt so ... Inviting. She preferred cooking herself a real dinner and eating at a real table over ramen noodles on the couch after all. Besides, she had to be over there because he almost never finished his paper work, nor did he properly take briefings. It pissed her off to infinity, but he gave her a place to crash when she didn't want to be alone and Tsubaki was off doing whatever Tsubaki needed to do.

Evans didn't explain any of that though.

He and Black*Star hit it off pretty well once the blue haired boy got back, much to Maka's dismay. After the two of them spending time together Soul let it slip that Maka had been staying over more often, and bam.

Rumors.

Which Black*Star had loudly taken in tow.

Not only had Soul hit off well with the blue haired member of her company, but so had Tsubaki of all people. Which probably shocked the whole base command.

However, quiet people hold loud sides, and loud people hold quiet sides. There's a reason why opposites attract.

Needless to say, activity under Maka's company had gotten more interesting.

Interesting isn't a word too many soldiers like to know though.

Maka slipped away from the squadron building fuming for what seemed the thousandth time in the last six months. All thanks to a certain white haired partner. That day it was because of his loud mouth, a few days before because of his snark comments, and so on and so forth.

She walked back to her quarters, considering Soul had driven them into work on his bike and she didn't want to see his smug grin as she asked for a ride to her place.

A few minutes later when he ended up banging on the door, she sighed and let it be that she'd have to deal with him, before opening up the door to that shit eating grin she had known for a while now, and letting him inside.

"What do you want Soul?"

"Your place sucks."

She closed the door and smacked him on the back of his head with a rolled up magazine.

"Hey-!"

"I asked, what do you want?"

"I have a favor to ask you," He stated as he leaned against her kitchen counter eyes tracing the place, "And you're quarters really are bland. I see why you stay over at my place."

Maka glared at him, and he squirmed a bit under the gaze, slouching a bit.

"Well thanks to your loud mouth to that blue haired monkey, people think it's cause we're sleeping together, so hm, maybe I should just stay here more often! You've already pissed me off enough to today, so stop offending my place and just tell me exactly what the hell this favor you want me to do is."

For such a small young woman you would never guess that her mouth could spew so many heavily toned words in such little time.

"I'm sorry about the Black*Star thing. I made it clear to him that our relationship is strictly professional. Even though you stole like three of my shirts."

"I've only taken two, and that was your fault both times for spraying spaghetti sauce everywhere and forgetting to cap your damn smoothie," She defended, ignoring his smirk as her face grew redder, "What ever, what is your favor then?"

"Well, I need you to go on a date with me-"

"Hell no Soul-"

"Just wait ok? Damn woman, it's to a wedding - my brother's to be exact. I just need you to come with me, introduce yourself to my brother, and then you can go do whatever the hell you want. Ok?"

"Why?"

"I'll explain once we get there, alright?"

Maka stared at her feet considering it, before tapping lip and replying quietly, "But I have nothing to wear."

Soul shook his, "Tough Maka Albarn, kicks a bunch of snipers asses with only a guy like me to accompany her, is worried about what to wear? Just put on a skirt, and a nice shirt. You have those right?"

Maka shrugged a bit, tugging on the sleeve of her shirt (his shirt) before responding, "Kind of."

A kind of was all he needed for a yes, except this wasn't a date.

In the back of his mind he cheered a bit though on the fact that he got a date.


End file.
